Week at a glance: Relook at celeb endorsements; #WomenDisruptors; Uday Sodhiâ€™s Kurate

Implications of adding political clause in celebrity endorsement contracts

Deepika Padukone, one of the highest paid actresses in Bollywood, faced backlash on social media after she came out publicly in support of and expressed her solidarity with the student protesters at JNU some time back. This, in turn, led some of the brands that she endorses hold back some of the ads where she appears.

#WomenDisruptors: Build leaders, not followers - Anjana Ghosh

After having worked in the steel industry for over 15 years, Anjana Ghosh joined Bisleri International in June 2006 as Deputy General Manager, Sales & Marketing. Over the next three years, she grew with the brand to the post of General Manager and then to Director. In her current capacity as Director of Marketing and Business Development, Ghosh has been the driving force behind the new image and market reach of Bisleri and its consistent profitable growth year on year.

#WomenDisruptors: Women don’t realise they’re being short-changed in workplaces

As CEO & Director at Zirca Digital Solutions, Neena Dasgupta is responsible for all day-to-day management decisions and for implementing the company’s long and short term plans. She was actively involved in the setting up of Zirca. Acknowledged as a visionary in digital media and advertising, Dasgupta has been aggressively involved in expanding and scaling Zirca’s footprint.

#WomenDisruptors: Create a culture of motivation & Bheja Fry sessions

Nisha Singhania, Co-Founder & Director, Infectious Advertising, comes with a rich experience of over two decades after having cut her teeth with various leading advertising agencies. In 2013, she was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and she co-founded Infectious Advertising along with her partner Ramanuj Shastri. Today, Infectious is 7 years old, 40+ people strong and works with clients like Future Group, Tata, Intercontinental Hotels Group, UltraTech Cement, Reliance Jio, Inorbit Malls, and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri.

#WomenDisruptors: Be the wise fool of tough love: Nilima Bhat

Nilima Bhat is an Author, Speaker, Founder of The Shakti Fellowship, and Director of Roots & Wings Consulting. She is an expert in the fields of Personal Mastery, Leadership, Gender Equality and Wellbeing. Bhat is currently focused on building The Shakti Fellowship, a global 9-month advanced leadership & entrepreneurship programme for women, jointly certified with the University of San Diego; with a vision to train 100,000 Shakti Leaders as change-makers by 2030.

Shenaz Bapooji, Chief Marketing Officer, Shopmatic Group, highlights how digitisation is taking over all spheres of life. She also talks about how consumers are constantly seeking affirmations from genuine users and not necessarily from ‘great ads’.

Shailesh Goyal, Founder-Director, Simulations Public Affairs Management Services, takes a look at the emerging trends that will dominate the Public Relations industry in 2020. He also talks about the growing spread of digital and how it is impacting the PR business.

Revealed, Uday Sodhi’s new venture – Kurate Digital Consulting

With an aim to bring a dramatic change through Digital Transformation in India, Uday Sodhi, former Business Head of SonyLiv, has partnered with 4 industry leaders – Atindriya Bose, Animesh Misra, Kanwaleen Syali, and Niraj Hedaoo – to launch a start-up joint venture, Kurate Digital Consulting.

Prathyusha Agarwal to take on the mantle of Chief Consumer Officer at ZEEL

In order to accelerate its ‘Customer First’ approach, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), the leading media & entertainment powerhouse, has announced that Prathyusha Agarwal will take on the mantle of the Chief Consumer Officer for the Domestic Broadcast Business. In this new role, Agarwal will continue to report into Punit Misra, CEO, Domestic Broadcast Business, ZEEL.

Bob Chapek named Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors announced today that Bob Chapek has been named Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company, effective immediately. Chapek most recently served as Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.

Tamara Ingram to step down as global chairman of Wunderman Thompson

Tamara Ingram has stepped down as global chair of Wunderman Thompson as per international media reports. Her exit was confirmed in a staff memo.

Prepare for rise of influence driven content, regional & voice ads, say experts

The Mobile Marketing Association India (MMA India), in collaboration with GroupM, recently launched the third edition of ‘Mobile Marketing Ecosystem Report 2020’. Bharat Subramaniam, Managing Director, Big Trunk Communications; Vivek Pandey, VP - Revenue Strategy & Analytics, Times Internet; and Karan Gupta, CEO, Alchemy Group, analyse the findings of the report and new opportunities in the mobile ecosystem.

Hotstar’s business is about great storytelling: Gaurav Banerjee

Hotstar is beefing up its Original content line-up with a spy action thriller – ‘Special Ops’ – as part of its Hotstar Specials offering. Directed by Neeraj Pandey and co-directed by Shivam Nair, this fast-paced 8-episode series is based on the role of Indian intelligence in a series of real terror attacks that India faced over the last 19 years, starting with the 2001 attack on Indian Parliament. Hotstar Specials has partnered with Friday Storytellers to launch ‘Special Ops’.

#TwitterChat: Perception biggest barrier to women returning after a break, say experts

Adgully organised a Twitter Chat on February 21, 2020 in the lead-up to our event ‘Women Disruptors’ on March 6, 2020. The topic of conversation was ‘Restarting your career after a break’, where we engaged high profile women professionals across the industry spectrum to understand what it takes for a woman to advance her career professionally while balancing life priorities.

How Colors grew its viewership to 505 mn and captured 21.1% market share

Colors, the Hindi general entertainment channel from Viacom18 Media, was placed in the numero uno spot in Week 7 of 2020, garnering gross viewership of 697,606 [BARC data: HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals].

Delhi, Mumbai largest OTT audio streaming markets in India: Report

OTT streaming seems to be thriving in markets where radio listenership habit is not strong. Listeners are spending at least 65 minutes overall on various OTT Audio platforms. Meanwhile, Gaana tops the charts with 30 per cent market share in OTT Audio streaming. This was revealed in the ‘OTT Audience Measurement Insights’, a first of its kind, passive, continuous audience measurement service launched by Kantar and VTION. The service seeks to bring the streaming audio medium at par with Radio, TV, Print and Digital platforms.

Colors Cineplex completes 1 year; lines up a legendary cricket jung

It was a year ago that Colors Cineplex came into being, with the rebranding of Rishtey Cineplex from the Viacom18 stable. In the past year, Colors Cineplex clocked maximum viewership of 184 million, making it one of India’s fastest-growing premium Hindi movie channels.

SEO – Why marketers should consider this free avenue for brand engagement

Meera Iyer, Chief Marketing Officer, Medlife.com, writes about the power of SEO for building traffic and engaging audiences. Here, she shares several helpful tips in the technological aspects of SEO implementation, the Do’s and Don’ts, and how brands can make the most of their SEO strategy.

How messaging apps can give brands the competitive advantage

Chamith Buthgumwa, Director, Isobar Sri Lanka, writes about how brands are using messaging to connect to customers, in real-time and personally. Customer service channels worldwide stand to gain much for their businesses by keeping in step with the preferences for their customers – and messaging is sure to be a critical part of it, he affirms.

GroupM’s m/SIX Bags media mandates worth INR 700 Crores In 2019

m/SIX, GroupM’s youngest media planning unit, accelerated its business to about 700 crores through its spectacular wins in the year 2019. m/SIX was seen winning the media mandate for several prominent brands like Emami, Revv Cars, V-Nourish, Toppr, The Moms Co, Sebamed, following their multi-agency pitches amongst others.

How UPI Chalega brought together NPCI, banking, payments, fintech players

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has joined hands with the payment ecosystem players to co-create an industry campaign, ‘UPI Chalega’, to promote UPI as Easy, Safe, and Instant mode of payment. The campaign is aimed to guide users towards the right usage of UPI and help create a habitual change, use of UPI in their daily life. The campaign also focuses on safety aspects while transacting on UPI enabled apps.

Saatchi & Saatchi Propagate bags mandate for Harappa Education

Saatchi Propagate (formerly L&K Digital), the new-age communication specialist agency of the Publicis Groupe, has bagged the creative and communication mandate for Harappa Education, India’s first online learning institution.

#KeepGirlsInSchool: How Whisper is highlighting the missing girls

Whisper, India’s leading feminine care brand, today released a stirring campaign to #KeepGirlsInSchool and prevent them from dropping out when they get their periods. As part of this campaign, Whisper launched its new film that aims to create awareness on how even today, girls across India drop out of school on hitting puberty.

#BreakingNews ex-Flipkart CMO, Shoumyan Biswas joins Rebel Foods

ex-Flipkart, CMO, Shoumyan Biswas joins Rebel Foods as head of strategic initiatives. He quit the e-commerce company last year in February after a six year association. He updated his new role on his LinkedIn profile.

AdLift wins Tata AIG General Insurance SEO & Social Media

Global digital marketing agency, AdLift bags the digital marketing mandate for Tata AIG General Insurance. Securing the account after a multi-agency pitch, AdLift will handle the brand’s digital media duties, including SEO and Social Media management.